It's Okay
by Dustbunny3
Summary: [One-shot][Gen, background SakuHina] Ino and Sakura's friendship is tested when Ino realizes that she isn't as okay with Sakura dating a girl as she first thought. Edited to fix some formatting.


A/N: Another little something I wrote years ago for a webzine that never made it past the first issue. This is a prequel of sorts to my SakuHina fic _That Worth Having_, but it can stand well enough on its own. I always planned to write more in this 'verse; reposting this reignites that urge something fierce, since it almost went a few different directions that I'd still like to explore. Time will tell.

.

Ino pursed her lips, fiddling with her chopsticks. The restaurant was pretty quiet, the dinner crowd unusually sparse; Sakura and Hinata were eating with nary a sound, both obviously aware of her staring but trying to ignore it. A smile tugged at the corner of Ino's mouth to see the way they subtly leaned closer together as if to show off the strength in their numbers. A roar of laughter rose from a nearby table, kicking off a loud conversation from the group it had come from. Seizing upon the opportunity, Ino leaned towards Sakura, words spilling in a rush, "What about that time-"

"No."

Indignant, Ino straightened up, accusing as she did, "You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"I have a pretty good idea," Sakura shot back; she was scowling, cheeks red, but Ino could see the amusement hidden in her eyes. "For the last time, Ino, I have never tried to hit on you."

Crossing her arms over her chest and slumping in her seat, Ino pouted. From the corner of her eye she could see that Hinata's face was almost entirely red and was twisted up into an expression that Ino couldn't put her finger on; it wasn't a look she had ever seen on Hinata before, and it disappeared when Ino focused her attention on her. Humming to herself in thought, Ino lifted a bite of food to her mouth without taking her eyes off of Hinata. Hinata, in turn, held Ino's gaze even as her face colored so deeply that it almost looked like she'd stopped breathing. Quirking an eyebrow at her, Ino turned back to Sakura, whose eyes were on her own meal.

"So?"

"So what?" Sakura asked with a wariness that Ino thought entirely unnecessary.

"So, how did this happen?"

"We got to know each other, we got to be friends, we fell in love," Sakura said, looking Ino straight in the eye and sounding defensive to Ino's ears.

"Come on, we're all girls here," said Ino, scooting her chair closer to Sakura and bowing her head close to give the conversation an air of conspiracy. "You don't have to be coy about the details, I won't laugh."

"There aren't really any details worth telling, Ino-san," Hinata said, voice low and so near that it made Ino look up; Hinata, too, had scooted closer to Sakura and leaned in, far into Sakura's personal space. "It happened just like Sakura said."

"Oh, come on, there are always details worth telling," Ino insisted, discretely backing off at the unspoken cue that she wasn't sure Hinata was aware of giving. The rather impertinent closeness of her companions made her cast a quick eye about the room, but no one was paying them any attention. "Who made the first move? Where? Hell, _when_? And, Hinata, I told you before you can just call me Ino."

"Ino, why does it matter?" Sakura asked, though Ino thought she looked pleased by Ino's interest. "Really, it's all pretty boring to talk about."

Ino opened her mouth to argue but immediately snapped it shut, feeling her own face color. Sakura wasn't really shy about talking to Ino about her love life, or what she had of one. Hinata, on the other hand- Hinata hardly knew Ino at all. Clearing her throat and smiling sheepishly, Ino went back to her meal. In her peripheral vision she saw Sakura sigh in relief (which was definitely not necessary) and Hinata retreat back towards her own bubble of space. All was peaceful for some minutes before Ino's thoughts got the best of her and she found herself blurting, "What about the time-"

"Ino-pig!"

"It's a fair question! I mean, you like girls-"

"I prefer guys to girls."

"Oh, _really_?" Ino drawled with as much sarcasm as she could force into the words, looking pointedly at Hinata and then back at Sakura.

"I prefer Hinata to guys," Sakura said with no hesitation or trace of doubt.

Hinata ducked her head so fast that it looked like someone had knocked her forward, but not fast enough to hide the smile that had broken out across her face (which was now only a few shades light of a ripe cherry, which couldn't be healthy). Though Ino tried to restrain herself, she could not help the squeal that forced itself out past her teeth at the admission and the reaction it caused. The scene was making Sakura go a deep red herself, and that made Ino giggle in turn. This whole Sakura and Hinata thing was still strange to her, but they were really adorable. Not that she had any plans to tell Sakura that, of course.

"I still think it's a little off," Ino said, hoping to get one of them to spill something else. "I mean, you've known me way longer than you've known her and I never knew you even liked girls."

"No one knew," Sakura sighed, looking near to throwing her hands up- or maybe throwing something at Ino. "I told you, I like guys more than girls in general. I was never looking for a relationship with a girl. Mostly I just like the looks of them."

"Oh, so you don't like the looks of me?" Ino asked, meaning to joke but finding that she really wanted to know. Hinata looked pretty interested in the answer herself, Ino noted.

Sakura rolled her eyes and said, smirking, "Not enough to ignore your personality, Ino-pig."

Hinata giggled into her hands while Ino _hmph_'d, nose in the air and hands on her hips. Still, Ino was relieved to feel the tension draining. She wasn't trying to cause trouble, really, she just had questions that wanted answers. What was wrong with- wait-

"Wait!" Ino looked back at Sakura with a smirk of her own in place. "So then you _do_ like the looks of me?"

Sakura actually did throw her hands up then, groaning; Hinata's face pulled into another expression that Ino couldn't identify, making a noise like she was choking on a giggle. Ino was about to tell them that she had just been kidding- which she had been, really, some people just wouldn't know a joke if they saw it chase a chicken across the road- but Sakura spoke first.

"Ino, if I admit that I had a crush on you when we were kids, would you drop the subject?"

Pulled up short, Ino felt her stomach twist a bit. Looking at Sakura with her eyes peeled for any indication of dishonesty, Ino asked back, "Would it be the truth?"

"Yes," said Sakura, clearly exasperated.

Fairly sure that she would know if Sakura was lying to her and seeing no sign that she was, Ino considered this for a few beats. It was chilly all of a sudden, and her chest felt constricted. But this was what she had wanted to hear, wasn't it? Swallowing down the odd flavor in her mouth, Ino nodded sagely and said, "Yeah, I guess that lets you off the hook."

She thought she did a rather admirable job of hiding the awkwardness that had stolen over her, but while Hinata giggled again (a relieved sort of sound, and Ino envied her for that) Sakura looked at Ino with a long, searching look. Ino resisted, just barely, the urge to put her arms around herself for protection that she did not need.

"Ino..."

"Spit it out, forehead," Ino snapped, feeling on edge.

"This is okay with you, isn't it?"

Hinata curled into herself at the words, looking from Ino to Sakura and then back to Ino. Sakura's gaze held steady. Drawing herself up, feeling scandalized, Ino looked at Sakura dead-on and said, "Of _course_ it's okay."

Sakura held Ino's eye for a moment longer, then smiled an unspoken apology and went back to her food. Apparently this was enough for Hinata, as she followed suit. Ino herself huffed out a heavy breath and attacked her meal as though it had done her some injustice. Honestly, the nerve to ask her that! Hadn't Ino given them free flowers? Wasn't she treating them to dinner? Of course it was okay with her.

.

Only it really wasn't okay with Ino. She told herself it was and was prepared to tell Sakura it was if Sakura should ask again. But the twisted feeling in her gut seemed to be following Sakura around; it went away when Sakura did, and reappeared when Sakura did. At first it wasn't so bad, and mostly Ino ignored it. She would have gone on ignoring it, too, if it wasn't for the Bath Incident.

Honestly, "incident" was a strong word for it. Nothing happened, exactly. Ino suddenly found herself very busy and with little time to spend with Sakura, so when Sakura caught her in a free moment she all but dragged Ino out for girl time. Ino was about to tease about just how such terminology could be taken with all things considered when she managed somehow to step on her own foot. Sakura laughed, Ino snapped at her; Sakura taunted, Ino replied in kind; then there was yelling and for a little while everything was right with them. A trip to the hot springs was suggested somewhere in their banter, and the illusion of times past carried Ino all the way to the bath house, through the changing room and out to the springs themselves.

There wasn't much of a crowd, though they didn't exactly have the place to themselves. Neither losing stride in their back-and-forth, they found a spot a good ways away from the other women and settled themselves in. Sakura submerged herself in the water immediately, and Ino smirked at the idea that Sakura was boiling herself alive rather than stand in the face of Ino's superior wit, or maybe just taking the time to come up with a comeback. When Sakura emerged a few moments later, though, all she did was sigh contentedly and lean back against the edge of the spring.

"Oh, I've needed this for weeks," she murmured, to herself or to Ino, Ino was not certain.

Ino, sitting on the edge with only her legs dipped into the water, mumbled incoherently in response all the same. She glanced down at Sakura, whose eyes were closed and who looked more relaxed than Ino had seen her in... It was hard to say, actually, especially since Ino hadn't seen her much at all lately. Of course that wasn't at all Ino's fault, it was just the way the world worked sometimes, but she felt a pang of guilt nonetheless. Squirming a bit although she couldn't say why, feeling as though she should say something at any rate, Ino reached to unwrap her towel. Then a couple of things happened at once to bring the delusion of normality that Ino had so carefully built up crashing down around her ears.

From somewhere across the spring there was a splash, and one of the other women shrieked half in outrage and half in glee; this was followed closely by a chorus of giggles. It was easy enough to spot the source of the disturbance: Four girls, perhaps a bit younger than Ino and Sakura, were splashing about in the middle of the spring. Three wore towels, and one of those three held a fourth towel in her hand. The fourth girl was naked, trying and failing to look enraged, and trying (and again failing) to get her towel back as her friends teased and kept up with their game of keep-away. Ino chuckled, now holding the edge of her own towel in her lap, and turned to comment to Sakura. And saw Sakura watching.

To be fair, just about everyone was watching- some watched with amusement, others with annoyance, and Ino found herself wondering in what manner Sakura was watching. Then Ino looked back at the naked girl and really _looked_ at her- flawless skin, long dark hair, a knockout figure and a pretty face- and it occurred to her that she knew exactly how Sakura was watching. The realization hit her like a punch to the gut from Rock Lee, but even more intense was the realization that she was naked from the waist up and Sakura was sitting beside and down from her. Her next realization was that she hadn't taken a breath- had hardly moved- since she caught Sakura peeking. Sakura herself turned towards Ino just as she was about to rectify the problem and Ino, before she could stop herself, was gasping loudly and jerking her towel up to cover her chest. A chill ran down Ino's spine as Sakura's gaze settled on her.

Taken aback, Sakura blinked up at her before asking, "Ino, what's wrong?"

Which was a fair question, really. Ino had been naked with Sakura before- hell, she'd been naked with Sakura just a few minutes ago in the changing room. Even then, Sakura herself was a girl; it was a gross misrepresentation to say that Ino had nothing to show Sakura that Sakura couldn't show herself, but if nothing else there were no surprises. And Sakura was a medic, on top of everything else. If Ino had something she hadn't seen before Ino ought to be in the hospital, not in a hot spring.

But Sakura liked girls. Sakura liked the _looks_ of girls, and was in prime position for an eyeful of Ino. And hadn't Sakura admitted that she had a crush on Ino? When they were kids, sure, but a crush was a crush. One never knew when unrequited love would sneak up again. Really, Ino had every right to freak out that Sakura was ogling her. Only Sakura wasn't actually ogling her. She was staring up at her, but her expression was blank, her eyes without the humor that had shone in them all the way from the flower shop.

"I- You didn't see that?"

"See what? The girls?" Sakura asked; she sounded skeptical, but Ino could tell from the look of her that she was willing to eat up just about any excuse that Ino tossed her.

It made Ino's stomach roil, but she shifted and nodded over to the fence as she said, "I thought I saw someone over there."

"What, peeking in?" And now Sakura was more concerned with assurance that her own towel was secure to worry about Ino readjusting hers. "Where?"

"I don't know, I just thought I saw something move," said Ino, trying to cover the sound of her insincerity with grouchiness. "Do you see anything?"

Sakura stood and waded over, Ino following after her for show. She wasn't sure what she would say when Sakura found no hole or opening for someone to look in through.

"Ino, I don't see-" Sakura said, cut off by a sound from behind one of the rocks around the edge of the spring.

Both of them jumped just a bit when a squirrel scurried out, looked up at them, twitched its nose, and then ran off over the fence. They stood there in silence for a moment, then Sakura turned to Ino with a mocking grin. Crossing her arms over her chest and huffing, Ino preemptively instructed, "Shut up, forehead."

"Oh, I don't blame you for being jumpy, Ino-pig," Sakura said with sugar-sweet sarcasm. "Just imagine what that pervy squirrel is probably saying to its little buddies right now."

"I said shut up," Ino muttered, face red as she made her way back to where they'd been. She heard Sakura laugh behind her and found herself stopping short and saying, "Oh, damn, I forgot. I told my dad I would work an extra shift today."

"Now?" asked Sakura, clearly disappointed. "But we just got here."

"Yeah, and it's a good thing," Ino said as she pulled herself out of the hot spring. Looking over her shoulder to watch Sakura coming out after her, she said, "I'm probably not too late. You go ahead and stay here, we'll get together another time, okay?"

Sakura looked smaller than Ino knew her to be as she answered, "Yeah, okay."

.

It wasn't as though Ino meant to be misleading. Well, fine, she _did_ lie right to Sakura's face, but she honestly did have every intention of cashing in the rain check on her and Sakura's girl time after she had the chance to be away from Sakura and regroup her thoughts. But Sakura was suddenly around _all the time_, and all it did was hammer home how busy both of them were, especially Ino. Life could be hectic enough for anyone, never mind for a shinobi, never mind for a shinobi with a second job; Ino had almost no free time, and heaven forbid if she should want to spend it sleeping and eating rather than hanging out with Sakura- who was busy enough herself, really. If blame was to be assigned, Sakura was just as worthy of it, if not more so when her dates with Hinata were taken into consideration. Sakura could be upset to find Ino busy all she liked, but it was no fault of Ino's if she never knew when Sakura had time for _her_ either.

"You were off yesterday?" Sakura said to Ino's back as the latter went about cleaning up the shop.

Ino, who had already cleaned the shop and was irritated to find need to do so again, answered over her shoulder, "Yeah, that's why I'm working extra today. Why?"

"I was off yesterday," said Sakura mournfully. She had started out following Ino, but stopped to lean against the counter when she realized how much moving around Ino had to do. "We could have gotten together."

"Oh," said Ino. She had heard that Sakura wasn't at work, but a good shinobi didn't to go around chasing rumors. Walking further down the aisle in search of elusive dirt and plant bits, she said, "Well, that sucks. It's probably just as well that you spent the time with Hinata, though."

"Hinata's on a mission, Ino," Sakura said in a flat, disbelieving tone that Ino didn't think was at all called for. "I told you that."

"I thought she got back," Ino said vaguely as she swept the floor. The pile hadn't grown in some time, but Ino didn't feel like bending to sweep into the dust pan.

"She won't be back for a week," said Sakura. "I told you _that_ too."

"Excuse me, your majesty," Ino said, still not looking up from her work. "I'll try to pay more attention to your royal memos."

Sakura snorted at that. Ino, placing the broom momentarily aside, turned to ask if that was the best she could come up with; the sight of Sakura made her stop short. Of course Sakura always looked dull next to Ino's radiance, but today she was looking especially lackluster. Ino almost asked if she was feeling okay, but swallowed the question when a vicious whisper in the back of her mind told her that she already knew the answer.

"Look, Sakura, I'm sorry," Ino said sincerely. Less sincerely, she added, "I don't know how we keep missing each other lately."

"It happens," Sakura said, but she didn't look as though she believed it.

"Maybe another time, okay?"

A sigh, and then, "Yeah, okay."

Sakura left then and Ino finally got the debris she'd been pushing around off the floor and into the trash.

Ino's father told her with a smile later that the floor of the shop had rarely been so clean.

.

Ino didn't know why Sakura kept making such a big deal about them not spending time together. It was more time to spend with Hinata, and Ino knew Sakura wasn't sitting around at home when even Hinata was busy. Ino had seen her out with Sai-kun and Naruto, laughing and smiling and having a good time. Sakura had looked relaxed and happy, and Ino couldn't understand why she was stressing herself out trying to make plans with her when her teammates obviously had so much free time on their hands.

She had actually meant to meet up with Sakura that day, but watching her lean in towards each of her two companions in turn and smirk as they all talked, Ino figured she'd only be getting in the way.

.

Calendars were such an under-appreciated invention, Ino found herself thinking as she looked at the one beside her bed. The day was marked in red: _Meet Sakura for lunch before mission_. They were going to get lunch together and then Ino was going to see Sakura off on her mission.

That was what was supposed to happen anyway, what Ino had meant to happen. She showered, did her hair, dressed in civvies just for the occasion and went down to the shop to work her morning shift. Her father had moved her schedule specifically to accommodate this lunch date when he found out how little time that Ino and Sakura had recently. Few people came in, in the morning, so Ino wouldn't likely get swamped and miss Sakura.

To be honest, Ino was a little surprised to see anyone waiting for her to open up. Flashing the two young women her most winning customer service smile, she switched the sign around to indicate that the shop was open and unlocked the door for them. Tying on her apron, Ino took her place behind the counter and settled herself in. Her customers were perusing the selection of flowers and talking in hushed voices. The first time they glanced back at her, Ino smiled encouragingly and asked them if they needed assistance. They didn't. Ino started listening in to what they were saying the second time that they glanced over at her and still didn't need assistance. They were civilians and clearly had no idea just how loud their quiet conversation was to a shinobi. Pretending to flip through a magazine, Ino subtly tipped her head towards the women and pooled chakra into her ear to amplify her hearing.

"... I'm just telling you what I heard, and I got it from a reliable source," the brunette was saying.

"That's what you said when you tried to tell me that all the civilians were getting kicked out of the hidden villages," her companion, a redhead, said skeptically.

"This is different."

"No kidding. You're accusing the Hokage's apprentice of being a dyke."

The words made Ino stiffen, her fingers clutching at the page she had been turning. Anger knotted her stomach; her instinct was to walk over to the women and show off the slimy underbelly of her own vocabulary, but instead she kept listening.

"Those two are always together-"

"So are we."

"Not like them. I saw them together once, they practically had _sex_ right there in the street."

Ino almost choked at that, but kept her cool. She wasn't sure whether to laugh out loud at the thought or tell the two gossips to mind their own business, so she went for option C and kept her peace to listen further.

"So what about this one? If Haruno and Hyuuga are all over each other like you say?"

"Haruno keeps coming around here, you just have to see the way she acts for yourself. I guess that cold fish can't keep her satisfied so-"

"Do you ladies plan on making a purchase?" Ino asked coolly, surprising them. When they looked over at her, she grinned mischievously and leaned across the counter to add, "I can help you if you need something special. For an anniversary, maybe?"

The bimbos stared at her blankly so she quirked an eyebrow and let her gaze go quickly back and forth between them. They turned red and started spluttering and Ino only chuckled indulgently and tossed off a wink before pretending to go back to her magazine. Some very amusing sounds came from the two of them then, and Ino looked up to see the brunette striding towards her.

"Now just a minute," the woman said, eyes alight with anger. "Just what do you take us for exactly?"

Ino flipped a page and shrugged as she said, "A customer is a customer, it doesn't matter to me what kind. Just so long as it's a paying customer, of course."

The woman's face was as red as Ino had ever seen Hinata's and it was all Ino could do not to burst out laughing and kick both of them out of the shop with an order to never return. She was about to tell them to shove off anyway when the woman slammed both hands on the counter.

"I know what you are," the woman hissed, right in Ino's face. "And if you think I'm going to stand here and be subjected to your projected fantasies-"

The next thing she knew, Ino was behind her and gripping the junction between her neck and shoulder just tight enough to hurt. The redhead started to scream, but a look from Ino cut her off; the brunette protested but Ino simply squeezed tighter until she got the hint to shut up. The silence was tense, and Ino let it stand for a full minute before briskly escorting her captive towards the door, motioning for the redhead to follow.

"You will leave my shop and you won't come back," Ino said as she shoved the brunette out the door and gave the redhead a shove to get her out faster. "Do me a favor and try to resist having sex in the street, hmm?"

Without waiting to hear what either of them would come up with for an answer, Ino shut the door- didn't _slam_ it, as that would be bad business- in their gaping faces. Then, to make sure that they didn't loiter, Ino made a show of rearranging the window displays. The brunette looked like she might come in and try to pick a fight, but the redhead wasn't quite that stupid and dragged her friend away. Ino smirked as she watched them go; it was a pity she hadn't gotten their names, she was still connected to a number of gossip circles herself.

No word of Sakura and Hinata had been heard in any of those circles, though, not by Ino. But then if it was suspected that Sakura was sniffing around to have Ino as a mistress, maybe people had just been careful to keep it from Ino's ears.

"Ino?"

Jerking out of her thoughts, Ino turned to find her father behind her. Her heart sped up a bit. From the look of it he had heard some of the commotion, and was waiting for an explanation. Mouth cotton dry, Ino shrugged and just managed, "It was nothing that I couldn't handle."

Nodding, her father took a quick look around, saw that no damage had been done, and looked back at her with a smile, saying, "What are you doing? I thought I put you behind the counter."

"Yeah, but there's no one here right now," Ino said, "and I was thinking of changing the display while I have the time free. We've had this up for a while."

"True," said her father, looking at it in consideration. Shrugging, he said, "Well, do what you see fit but don't ignore any customers that come in. A message came in from Ibiki so I'm going down to Interrogation. If I'm not back in time for the end of your shift just go ahead and close for lunch."

"Alright," Ino said, sounding strange to her own ears. Her father gave her an odd look, but Ino just turned back to the display. "I'll see you later then."

Humming noncommittally, Inoichi stooped to kiss Ino's cheek before leaving. Ino stood where she was for some time after he'd gone, staring at the display she was supposed to be fixing without seeing it; listening to the quiet of the shop and wondering what she wasn't hearing. A shudder ran through her and she finally broke out of her stupor to move the flowers in the window out of her way. Glancing at the clock, she saw that she still had several hours before she had to go and meet Sakura, plenty of time to arrange and put up something new. With a determined nod, Ino set about her work.

It took longer than she had expected. First there was finding the right flowers for the display; it should have been easy in such a quality shop as the Yamanaka clan owned, but Ino was a perfectionist and so even the most beautiful blooms looked lacking to her critical eye. When at last she had enough flowers that she liked, she wasn't sure what to do with them exactly. She'd had a design in mind, but it fell far short of her expectations and she was forced to begin again. The flowers could only put up with so much arranging and rearranging before beginning to wilt, however, and so her hunt for suitable flowers was renewed.

Really, Ino would have gotten done much faster if people who actually intended to buy flowers hadn't started coming in and taking her away from her work. Ino helped three men find flowers for their girlfriends, two more find flowers for their wives, and five more find flowers for their mothers, lecturing on the merits of each flower until her customers had constructed the perfect bouquets for their occasions. Between the bouquets she sold various get-well gifts- making sure that everyone knew exactly what the flowers they selected would mean when given to their respective recipients- and several house plants- making sure that everyone knew how they were blessing their homes with their selections. She had just rung up such a sale and was back to toiling over her display piece when the bell over the door sounded yet again. Sighing, Ino looked up with a friendly smile pasted over her face; it froze there when she saw who had just come in.

"Sakura," she said through a fog, "what are you doing here?"

"You didn't show up so I wanted to make sure you were okay," Sakura said, obviously trying for a teasing tone of voice but falling short. Her eyes were shining under the florescent lights in such a way that Ino thought she might be about to cry. "We were supposed to meet almost an hour ago."

Ino looked at the clock and told herself that she was shocked to see the time.

"Oh, hell- Sakura, I'm sorry, I started this window display when I first came down and-"

"It's alright, I understand," Sakura said, and her smile was convincing enough that Ino was almost afraid that maybe she did. She stepped forward and Ino saw a take-out box in her hands. "I ordered for us at the restaurant and had them pack your portion up for me. Eat it whenever you finish working."

"Thanks," Ino said. She reached out with one hand to take the box but stopped short and waved her hand towards the clear side of the counter in a move that looked nearly natural. "Set it down there, would you? And, really, I'm-"

"It's okay, Ino-pig, you don't have to grovel." Sakura tried to laugh as she set the box where Ino had indicated but the sound fell flat between them. Wincing herself, she turned quickly and waved over her shoulder. "I'll see you when I get back, I guess."

"Yeah, for lunch. Before my mission," Ino said, heart chill when Sakura turned to look at her with barely concealed little girl hope. "Well, if you get back in time."

"I'll try," Sakura said, her smile making it to her eyes this time.

Ino smiled back, holding the expression until Sakura was gone.

Her father was exhausted when he got back, but he took the time to tell her that her display looked lovely and he hoped she'd enjoyed her lunch with Sakura.

.

Now that Ino knew what she was listening for, she heard a lot.

.

"What's the rush, Ino?" Shikamaru asked as Ino easily outpaced both him and Chouji out of the village. "We're already early, we don't have to power-walk the whole way there."

"I just want to go and get back," said Ino, irritable. She turned around, walking backwards so that she could glare at her teammates while she went. "Why are you lagging?"

"Do you have a date or something, Ino?" Chouji asked, and Ino almost smiled at the way the tips of his ears went red when he asked.

Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow at her, the barest hint of a smirk playing on his lips; he clearly expected an answer to the question. Just a little pink in the face, Ino turned back around with a huff. She was about to call something off-handed over her shoulder but the words disappeared in a rush of breath, Ino herself stopping short at the sight of Sakura standing in front of her. Sakura was dirty and tired-looking; she smiled at Ino wryly, but her eyes were blank.

"I guess I missed you again," she said.

"I tried to wait, forehead" Ino huffed, hoping that Shikamaru and Chouji would keep their mouths shut. "I suppose I know now how much I mean to you."

Sakura laughed without humor; Sai-kun and Naruto looked between them with interest, though Kakashi-sensei's eyes were settled on Ino alone. Ino forced a laugh that sounded no better than Sakura's, and was never so grateful in her life as when Shikamaru said, "We need to be going."

They all said their goodbyes and kept walking their separate ways. Ino's feet were dragging now, Chouji and Shikamaru walking on either side of her. Chouji kept glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, and Shikamaru was tactful enough to wait until they were well out of earshot of Sakura and her team before asking, "What the hell was that?"

"Nothing," Ino said shortly.

This seemed to pique Chouji's curiosity, as he turned to her and said, "Ino, if you were supposed to meet with Sakura-"

"I can meet with Sakura another time, alright?" Ino snapped.

Neither Shikamaru nor Chouji tried to bring the matter up again, but it was never far from Ino's thoughts.

.

The looks that Shikamaru and Chouji had been gracing her with ever since they had passed Sakura really needed to stop. They'd lasted through the mission and the journey back, and continued on into the village. Ino supposed she should be grateful that they didn't try to ask her about Sakura again, but the looks were just as bad, if not worse. The looks reached a new level of intolerable when they turned dirty and disproving; Shikamaru and Chouji didn't know what was going on, how dare they try to judge her?

"Sakura doesn't seem well lately," Shikamaru said one day when he stopped by the flower shop. "Is she alright?"

"Of course she's alright," Ino told him vaguely, wiping down the counter. "What do you mean she doesn't seem well?"

"You'd know what I mean if you'd seen her lately."

"Ex_cuse_ me?" Ino asked, scowling at him. Who was she, Sakura's keeper? "I see her every other day, if not more often. That girl needs more friends, I swear."

"Do you _really_ think that's what she needs?"

Ino didn't deem to answer such a stupid question.

.

"You made lunch?" Ino asked, staring in disbelief at the bento box that Sakura held out to her. Looking from the box to the hopeful, smiling face behind it, Ino felt the answer she knew she was going to give go sour in her mouth. Swallowing the words rather than speak them just yet, Ino said, "I've tasted your food, forehead girl, and all I have to say is- who are you working for?"

"Pig," Sakura snapped, sounding like she meant it more than usual, "you wouldn't know good cooking if a gourmet meal fell into your trough at mealtime. I was up all night making this lunch, the least you can do is agree to share it with me. You're the one who keeps breaking our dates."

"Does Hinata know you're wining and dining other women?" Ino asked breezily, the words making her stomach turn.

"Hey, I never said anything about wine," Sakura said, shifting from one foot to the other; waiting for Ino to say yes, Ino realized. "And Hinata made a picnic lunch to share with her teammates."

There was more to the words than what Sakura was saying, but Ino didn't dig. Instead she pouted and asked, "Why aren't _you_ taking _me_ on a picnic?"

"Lunch on a bench outside is almost a picnic," Sakura said, her smile brighter now. "So you'll come?"

It was on the tip of Ino's tongue to say yes, and she hated herself for saying, "No, not today." As Sakura's face fell, good mood crumbling at her feet, Ino was quick to add, "I'm sorry, maybe-"

"Ino," said Sakura, her voice unreadable and her face turned down and away. There was a pause, then she looked back at Ino and said, "Look, did I do something to piss you off?"

"What? No, I-"

"Because if I did, I wish you'd just tell me. So we can talk about it," Sakura interrupted. Biting her lip and looking away again, she added, "Or if you don't even want to talk, I wish you'd tell me that too. Don't just keep saying things you don't mean."

"Don't get so bent out of shape," Ino snapped, crossing her arms tightly and glaring. "I said sorry, didn't I? Damn, it's just lunch. Just- another time, okay?"

"Yeah," Sakura said, her words as stiff as she was suddenly holding herself, "okay."

She was out the door before Ino could say anything else.

.

Ino had all but been thrown out of the shop by her father. Something about all the extra hours she'd been putting in lately and how he was starting to feel like he was using his own daughter as slave labor. Ino had been in the middle of protesting when he shut the door in her face; if she'd been working so much more than he was paying her to these days, why didn't he just slip her something extra instead of show her the door? It felt uncannily as though she was being punished for her hard work, and that just wasn't square. Was it her fault if-

Growling, Ino cut the thought off before she could be forced to answer it.

With a sigh, Ino kept up her walk through the village. An ongoing pang in her gut told her that she should go to the hospital to see Sakura, but she nixed the idea. Sakura was very clearly having some serious attitude problems lately- maybe it was stress or maybe it was just that time of the month, Ino didn't care. Whatever it was, Sakura was acting like a spoiled brat and Ino wasn't at all interested in socializing with her if she was going to act that way. She hadn't seen Sakura in three days anyway.

"It's not my fault," Ino muttered to herself as she walked, not paying attention to where she went and trusting everyone else to get out of her way. "She has no right to get snappy at me. I said I'd see her later, and what does she do? Give me the cold shoulder."

Sighing again, trying to release some of her frustration, Ino looked around for the closest restaurant to stop for lunch. Not at the top of her game, she looked around three times without really seeing anything; the first thing she did see was Hinata. Immediately Ino felt exposed, caught, even though Hinata was not looking at her and would not catch her at anything even if she did.

Ino almost called out a greeting to her, then almost kept going, almost pretended not to have noticed her at all, before she saw the wrecked look on Hinata's face. A picnic basket was clutched tight in her hands as she listened to something Kiba was saying to her. Weird. Hadn't Sakura said that Hinata's team was having a picnic just the other day? Hinata didn't seem to be aware of anything but Kiba, so Ino dared walk closer.

"... ask Shino," Kiba was saying.

"I already did," Hinata told him, wariness audible though her voice was carefully controlled. "He said he can't."

"Oh. Sorry, Hinata," Kiba said, scratching the back of his neck and looking somewhere over Hinata's head. "Maybe another time, okay?"

"Okay, Kiba-kun," Hinata answered, forcing a wavering smile.

Ino had never heard such a tone from Hinata before, but it was unmistakable all the same.

.

Ino wasn't sure just what it said about her as a person that she turned and walked so quickly away from someone who clearly needed, well, _someone_, but she did it anyway. She liked Hinata, she honestly did, but she hardly knew the girl. Sakura, on the other hand- Sakura was her only girlfriend, her best friend outside of Chouji and Shikamaru. Hinata might need _someone_, but Sakura needed _Ino_.

Speaking of Sakura, Ino spotted her just ahead. Head bowed, Sakura was dragging her feet over towards a bench outside the hospital. Ino had probably shown up just in time to catch Sakura at her lunch break, then.

"Caught you!" Ino cried triumphantly, flinging an arm around Sakura's shoulders and steering her away from the bench she'd been headed towards. "You did just go on your lunch break, right?"

Sakura turned to look at her with wide eyes that were especially green just then; they were red-rimmed and watery and a little puffy, and Ino suppressed the pang of guilt she felt looking into them with far less success than she suppressed the creeps that washed over her from head to toe and told her to break contact and retreat.

"Ino?" Sakura's voice was soft and uncertain.

"Do you know anyone else this gorgeous?" Ino asked, fluttering her eyelashes. When Sakura just stared she went on, "Seriously, they let people this slow tend wounded? Talk about good motivation not to-"

"Ino, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked, stopping short and refusing to move even when Ino tried to push her along.

"What do you _think_ I'm doing here?" Ino asked as though she had never heard such a silly question. The skin of her arm was crawling, but she kept it draped across Sakura's shoulders. "I'm here to take you to lunch. Because I missed you the other day, remember?"

Sakura just stared, flicking her gaze over Ino's face like she was trying to determine some sort of code; Ino tried to make her expression as clear as possible, but there were so many emotions to express that she wasn't sure that she hadn't made it more confusing. Their faces were very close together, Ino couldn't help noticing, close enough that Ino could feel Sakura's breath ghosting over her lips, but Ino held her ground. When Sakura leaned experimentally back into Ino's hold, Ino tightened the grip.

"Look, forehead girl, I'm sorry, okay?" Ino said, looking Sakura straight in the eye. "Now I'm taking you out, your choice, my treat. What else do you want?"

An explanation, probably. A real, relevant apology even more probably. Ino braced herself for Sakura to blow up or blow her off.

"What if I'm too busy for lunch with you today?" asked Sakura at long last, quiet and noncommittal, still looking Ino dead in the eye. "What then?"

Holding eye contact, Ino decided against shrugging and answered, "Then we'll get together another time."

The words weren't so different than those Ino had spoken to Sakura time and again in the past weeks (months? Had it been months?), but they sounded entirely different to Ino. From the way Sakura's eyes flickered and lit up and watered just a little, she heard the difference too. Ino meant it this time, more than she had ever convinced herself than she did before. If Sakura said no now, Ino would come back again the next day, and then the day after that if she had to.

People were staring as they walked by Ino and Sakura, but Ino ignored them. It wasn't as though she wasn't used to people staring at her anyway.

"Lunch sounds good, Ino," Sakura said, her voice wavering like she might cry.

More relieved than she would ever admit, Ino rolled her eyes and got them walking again, saying as she did so, "Oh, you say that now, but when it comes time for _you_ to pick up the check…"

Sakura laughed, a bubbly sound that Ino hadn't realized how much she missed. Ino left her arm where it was; as they walked Sakura slowly began to lean into Ino's side, and Ino gradually let herself lean back. At first it was all under the guise of whispering in Sakura's ear or shoving Ino to get back at one dig or another, but soon they were pressed together all along their sides for no reason except that there was no reason not to be.

_Is this okay with you, Ino?_ Sakura asked between the words she spoke.

The answer was _no, not really_. But Ino stayed close just the same, because it would be.

.

Praise appreciated, concrit treasured, flames raspberried.


End file.
